Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

  For me history is a nice and safe hobby.   Sitting in warm archives wading through documents is a good way a, mostly, unemployed person can keep out of the way.   It helps that my areas of interest are niche and largely unimportant to most people.   But, history has a habit of invading the present and, moreover, what is history to some people is unfinished business to others.   To understand the past one sometimes has to step into the present day. I have written several times about the case of Derek RIDGEWELL.   He was, as most people now know, a corrupt British Transport Police officer who died in prison in 1982.   He was imprisoned for theft and associated offences from the Bricklayers Arms goods depot in south London.   He was associated with organised crime and, throughout the 1970s, regularly targeted innocent men and ‘fitted them up’ for offences of which they were entirely innocent.   RIDGEWELL was a racist, a thug and a perjurer. ...

  Police Misconduct has been a problem since the very beginning of policing.   One particular type – that of making false claims – has persisted for generations.   Most supervisory officers will have had cause to look carefully at timesheets and to doubt the honesty of some claims of sickness.   To lend proper support to officers without giving licence to the dishonest and the idle is one of the challenges of police management. In 1903 Pc William PARK of the Lancs and Yorks Railway police (based at Liverpool Exchange) claimed that he had injured himself when inspecting premises on his beat.   He sustained a serious injury and cuts to his hand.   He was able to claim on the insurance fund and received half pay.   Over a period of several months he received a total of £7.    Unfortunately for him the company discovered (by what means we do not know) that he was lying about the cause of his injuries.   Evidence was obtained that he had in...